The Fatima Center/Our Lady’s Army of Advocates will be holding a conference at the DFW airport Hyatt Regency March 9-11 2018. A bevy of fantastic speakers are lined up, including this blog’s favorite Father Michael Rodriguez, Fr. Paul McDonald, Father Isaac Mary Relyea, Chris Ferrara, Michael Matt, and many other top speakers. Rates for the conference vary, the rate for the entire weekend is $270 which includes meals but not lodging, but walk-in rates starting at $20 are available for the main Saturday conference, which, yay! The Sunday conference is also only $20 if you brown bag it. What a great Lenten retreat! I pray my wife and I and perhaps some of the kids are able to attend, it should be a fantastic event.

The flyer is below. The complete list of speakers is here. Father Rodriguez is mostly speaking on Sunday, for those with a particular interest in hearing him, though I’m certain the entire conference will be wonderful and well worth attending. We should be able to make at least one of the days. The rest of the conference schedule is here.

This conference is not just for locals. Come in from Waco, Austin, San Antonio, Oklahoma City, El Paso, and much further afield! If you do plan to attend, please leave a comment and we can try to set up a meeting if you want. I’m sure I’ll/we’ll be at least one of the days.

What a blessed event for our area and dioceses. Though Mass will be offered each day of the conference and I’m certain the speakers will be quite busy, it would be wonderful if any of them could take a short trip over to Irving and drop by Mater Dei. I know their presence would be most appreciated, and it might be interesting for them to see such a large traditional parish. We’ll see.

I will post additional reminders and announcements as the event nears. If any of the organizers would like any particular aspects advertised, don’t hesitate to leave a comment or contact me at larryr103@gmail.com. I’m eager to spread the word on this great catechetical and social activity.

………and he also notes, that this sin of onanism – which I assume all readers know means self-abuse – does not have to be a sin of the person who falls into these inclinations. It can, in fact, be attributed to these sins in the parents, especially when combined with pornography use, which then allow the demons associated with these sins into the house, infecting even those who may not share the same sin (though, in most of these cases, they will). In the Old Testament, God reveals that the sins of the father are visited upon the children, even down to the 4th generation. This is actually a good reason for all Catholics, and especially converts, to know their family history. Masonry in the US was extremely common, especially throughout the farming communities of the Midwest, 100-150 years ago. I have several family members who were Masons, God rest their souls. Thus it was advisable that I, as father of my family, have minor exorcism prayers said in order to break any curses that might have been brought down on our family through this Masonic involvement. I also wonder if that Masonry is a source of the anti-Catholic animus that existed in some of my forebears, but that’s another subject.

At any rate, the sermon below is on a difficult topic, gender dysphoria, but the priest handles it with good care. I would say it is suitable for all fathers, almost all mothers and most children, but some families with the blessing of extreme innocence and delicate consciences may want to be careful with it. The priest notes that God made us male and female, and that this definition is made at the very core level of our beings – in our genetic codes. You either have a Y chromosome, or you don’t. Thus these transgender activists, pretending that gender is just an accident of socialization and can be “easily” changed with massive chemical intake, a change of dress, some makeup, and, oh yeah, permanent body mutilation, are insane. Actually, they’re not insane, they are in thrall to a hideous, satanic ideology, an ideology that seeks endless power for itself, and ruination for souls:

Transgenders, sodomites, and all their ilk (the growing “pedophile rights” movement) all pretend that their sin is somehow unique or different. Remember back when sodomites and their Leftist enablers told us they were born that way, and so it couldn’t be a sin? Now they say that not just sexuality but sex itself is entirely mutable and changeable, because it is convenient for them to do so. But as the sermon notes, it’s just another sin, and we all sin. Everyone of us struggles with various kinds of sins, and temptation to sin. Every single one. I’m an addict. There is infinitely more evidence that there is a genetic, “born that way” component to addiction than there is to sodomy or transgenderism. In fact, the genetic or hereditary component of addiction is pretty much proven – it definitely runs in families. That doesn’t make my sins of intoxication or compulsive sexual sins no longer sinful. And I am not “special” because I have this inclination. Everyone is born with a particular temperament, and particular inclinations towards sin. Some people have greater inclinations than others. Why? God knows, but the common view of the Saints is that God allows more suffering in those he loves most. His Son suffered infinitely for our sins, and God is incapable of loving anyone any more than Himself in His Son. Those tempted more are called to higher sanctity. Some horrible sinners have become tremendous Saints.

The priest’s explanations in the sermon are full of truth and love. It is very compassionate, but not in the modern, Francis of Rome Jesuitical sense. Not in the Father James Martin sense. In, you know, an actual Catholic sense.

I should add, also, that I don’t mean to imply above that if a kid falls into one of these lifestyles, it is necessarily the parent’s fault. I have seen kids falling away from wonderful families, families who, as well as an outsider can tell, seem to do everything right. People sin. There are myriad causes. The point above was just to note that these particular sins are very dangerous not only for parents but for their kids as well.

Cliches exist because they often serve as a sort of shorthand for truth, an often glib but also uncannily accurate description of a place, an event, a tendency, etc. Now, cliches can serve to represent and advance unfair bias, and often do, and they can badly misrepresent and miss vital nuance. But having said that, the cliche of the mean ‘ol trad Catholic is probably the dominant, knee jerk reaction we trads have to contend with. And, not entirely unfairly, it must probably be said.

How has this come about? Likewise, what about the trad cliche of the silly, far from groovy, get over the 60s hippy dippy happy clappy define your own truth Novus Ordo type? How true are these descriptions, and from where might they stem?

My new sole source for blogging material, Tumblar House, has some answers below, which I found pretty insightful. In this case, I thought Charles Coulombe’s confrere made perhaps the most insightful contribution – we trads/faithful Catholics are the product of long years of avoiding and overcoming constant deadly threats, both to ourselves and to our children – you think a few years of that might make someone a little reserved in charity and prone to pounce on perceived threats with maybe a bit more relish than absolutely necessary? And how about the rank failure of the hierarchy to define and defend Truth, so that laity have, by default, often had to step into this role? Think that might also have had some less than perfect fruit?

This short segment also provides a keen insight into that strange entity, the former devout pre-conciliar Catholic who now so loved the old Mass and all the old devotions, and now, as a septuagenarian or octogenarian finds them repellent. This person may or may not be a hippy casualty leftist, they may be quite orthodox in their Novus Ordo way, but they just viscerally hate the old Mass. How could that person, on an objective level, exist, when the TLM is so manifestly superior on practically every level possible? Well, they went through the incredibly jarring experience of being told by the Church, their Mother, that all they loved and held dear was not just far from ideal, but positively harmful/dangerous, and would be replaced by something “better.” I can’t imagine how painful that must have been, nor the depth of Faith those folks had, and have, to have seen them through that experience. That’s not to say their reactions, then or now, were always the right ones or even virtuous (mass contraceptive use, anyone?), but it does help to explain how these people came about. I think it hard for someone like me, who converted on the cusp of the 21st century, to comprehend just how obedient Catholics were in the 1960s, and the entire expectation of obedience that was woven into the fabric of Catholic lives at that time. That ethos, once such a cornerstone of the Faith (to an extent that m may have been excessive and even unhealthy, as natural as it was given the external attacks the Church faced from 1789-1958, say) has been one of the biggest casualties of the collapse of hierarchical authority since the “new springtime” of Vatican Il Duce.

Basically the Church is badly broken, probably in worse shape than she’s ever been, and that has left the sheep largely fending for themselves. We should not be surprised that under such circumstances, the laity would be left confused and even divided into hostile camps. This will persist, in my surmise, until the revolution that afflicted the Church in the 60s/70s (and today) is definitively rolled back, either by overt act or by slow submersion beneath a renewed authentic Catholicism.

I sorely wish I had had the means to share this with folks before the event, but it was deliberately cordoned in a veil of silence. Nevertheless, an historic event occurred during the Octave of Christmas this year, when, on Dec 30 (thanks to KB and SB for the correction), a Traditional Latin Mass was offered at the Sacred Heart Cathedral Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Dallas. Father Thomas Longua, pastor of Mater Dei FSSP parish, offered the Mass. Our family was unable to attend and I have received few reports on the Mass, the crowd, or the participants (I do not believe Bishop Burns participated), but there are a few pictures available.

Apparently the Mass was requested by some interested folks and new Bishop Burns, along with Cathedral Rector Stephen Bierschenk, approved. The occasion, in addition to the feast, was a retreat for the altar boys and their families.

The Mass took place at the side altar where the Blessed Sacrament is reposed. That is of course appropriate for the TLM – though our cathedral at one time had a most beautiful high altar, which was unfortunately and, I think it may be fairly said, callously ripped out during the wreckovations of the early 70s. Indeed, the former marble altar rail was turned into curbs for the parking lot! Just a slight triumph of expedience over piety……..

At any rate, some pics, and a bit more commentary below:

I am aware that this is not the first request to offer a TLM at the Cathedral. Certainly, it is not the first since Summorum Pontificum of 2007. So it is quite significant that approval was granted. There is a sense in this Diocese that our new bishop Edward Burns, is more sympathetic to traditional Catholics and the offering of the TLM than was his predecessor, Cardinal Kevin Farrell. There is growing hope that Bishop Burns may do away with the public, written policy instituted by then Bishop Farrell of banning offering of the TLM outside of the designated FSSP parish. Certainly there remains much unmet demand for the TLM, even with the explosive growth of Mater Dei, due to Mater Dei’s awkward location (I should know, I live near it and don’t want it to move) and the diocese’s size.

Nevertheless, it is certainly something to pray and hope for. The possibility appears much brighter than it did a year or so ago. Unfortunately, there was expressed a wish to keep this event quiet until after it happened, so we may still have a long way to go.

Compare and contrast the bare offering table above, and the former high altar:

I’m not supposed to say this, it might hurt “the cause,” but different religion, much?

UPDATE: A local confrere informed me that this was indeed the first TLM offered in the Cathedral at least since the ascension of the, ahhhh……..one might say problematic, Bishop Thomas Tschoeppe in 1970. Tschoeppe’s predecessor Bishop Gorman had apparently continued to offer the TLM regularly, until he was forced into retirement (very much against his will) in 1970. Bishop Gorman was known for his stalwart orthodoxy and adherence to the Faith he was raised in, the Faith of our fathers, Bishop Tschoeppe, for allowing the seminary to collapse into sodomitical anarchy and general liberalism. If what I am told is correct, one of Tschoeppe’s first acts was to oversee the wreckovation of the cathedral, including the altar rail cum parking curbs imbroglio. Anyway, a bit of local history.

A nice sermon from Padre Romo, who I guess I can identify since his website does the same. As someone who has struggled with addiction to drink and drug, I always find the Catholic approach to the consumption of liquor and other intoxicating substances so wonderfully balanced and reasonable. While I, due to my past excesses and the tendency, over many years, I developed to consume intoxicants to a sinful extent, can no longer partake of any drink or mind-altering drug, I appreciate the fact that the Church does not take the position of some protestants or the non-Christian Mormons, who excoriate all use of drink as sinful. That is not the case. How could it be, when our very Lord Himself confected wine out of water, when He uses wine as a means of transmitting His very being, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, in the Blessed Sacrament?

The issue, of course, is moderation. Like all goods, they can be abused if consumed immoderately. This may be basic for some, but I find in this sermon many helpful reminders, and a particularly timely one during this penitential season of Advent. Speaking of, have you charted out a plan of penance for Advent? Lenten penances get so much focus, but Advent as a penitential season is almost universally forgotten. I was particularly heartened and edified by the sermon a priest at out local parish gave this First Sunday of Advent on that very topic -what were we going to do for penance in this penitential season? I’m particularly glad this year that my vacation schedule will start right before Christmas and then go through the 7th, meaning I am off work the entire 12 days of Christmas. Thus, I hope to use Advent as the time of preparation for the joyous time to come, just as we should use this life as our time of preparation for our real life, or eternal life, which we pray will be in Heaven.

I also lacked the time yesterday to put up a post for the Novena of Our Lady of Guadalupe. That Novena should have started Sunday or yesterday. At any rate, just in case, here it is:

Our Lady of Guadalupe, according to THY message in Mexico I venerate THEE as the Virgin Mother of the true God for whom we live, the Creator of all the world, Maker of heaven and earth. In spirit I kneel before thy most holy image which thou didst miraculously imprint upon the cloak of the Indian Juan Diego, and with the faith of the countless numbers of pilgrims who visit thy shrine, I beg thy for this favor:

[Mention your request].

Remember, O Immaculate Virgin, the words thou hast spoken to thy devout client: “I am a merciful mother to thee and to all thy people who love me and trust in me and invoke my help. I listen to their lamentations and solace all their sorrows and sufferings.” I beg thee to be a merciful mother to me, because I sincerely love thee and trust in thee and invoke thy help. I entreat thee, our Lady of Guadalupe, to grant my request, if this should be the will of God, in order that I may bear witness to thy love, thy compassion, thy help and protection. Do not forsake me in my needs.

Recite “Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us” and Hail Mary three times.

Via Rorate, a PBS News video on Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary in Denton, NE. It covers the Gregorian chant that is of course a central part of the seminary’s daily life, as well as the CD the Fraternity produced last year. That record apparently “topped the charts.” I doubt that means it’s sold a million copies, but one takes what one can get. In fact, the second video gives a bit more coverage of the seminary’s vocal efforts.

I was tickled to see a local boy young man presently enrolled in the seminary around the 1:41-1:44 mark and at 2:14-7.

I wonder if the people who saw this segment thought: “Finally, some priests who look like priests?” Love to see all the birettas and cassocks! Bring back the tonsure!

A bit more for you:

The album is available for sale on most online music outlets, including the Christ-denying (well……) Amazon.

I’m really grateful for the additional evening Mass. Not sure what happened, it was announced there would be 4 weekday evening Masses, but in the event, “only” three materialized. Was really hoping for an evening Friday Mass, for those of us who work, but maybe someday. Maybe that will have to wait until a 5th priest is assigned?

Nutty. Why Dallas has grown so rapidly, one might even say violently, is an interesting point of speculation. There are other places that have had TLM parishes much longer (the community dates to ’91, but the parish only to 2010), but they have not grown nearly so fast. One reason might be the near total dearth of any really solidly orthodox alternatives, aside from St. William in Greenville, and the total ban on the TLM outside Mater Dei that has been in place since Bishop Farrell’s infamous prohibition of 2008. But I still don’t think that explains a nearly 600% growth in Sunday Mass attendance in less than a decade, from about 200 to nearly 1200.

Dallas is a strange place, from the standpoint of Catholicism. The suburbs in particular are hyper-conservative while the diocese is fairly liberal. Perhaps this disconnect somehow plays a role.

We’ve had above average priests, even by Fraternity standards. I’m sure that’s helped. I don’t think there’s been any watering down going on, to “sell the product” to TLM newbies. In fact, I think the opposite has been more the case, that the parish has grown because of Fr. Wolfe and other really orthodox priests. Still, why Dallas has grown almost exponentially while growth at other very solid, well run TLM parishes in similar settings has been solid, but much less spectacular, remains rather mysterious. I guess it was just meant to be.

Anyway ad multos annos, Mater Dei. Maybe we can live the experiment of a 5000 soul TLM parish someday. Won’t that be grand.

You either believe visible communion/right membership in the Church is vital, even required, for salvation, or you don’t. 20th century quasi-modernist formulations aside, both the vast majority of theologians/bishops/fathers/doctors and the vast majority of the laity over numerous centuries took the doctrinal declaration of “no salvation outside the Church” quite literally. This was the understanding that fired the superhuman efforts at evangelization (even, my oh my, proselytization) the Church undertook for many long centuries, converting most of the world, at least in part. This was the understanding that led to thousands upon thousands of martyrdoms, where Catholics refused to burn a pinch of incense to Caesar or partake in an English protestant worship service with its barren table altar and iconoclastic environment (rather like most parishes built since 1950).

Extra ecclesiam nulla salus, or rejection thereof, is one of those doctrines at the very core of the crisis in the Church. In many respects the so-called Feeneyites were right, they were simply both a bit extreme, and a bit late, perhaps. Had they come to the fore in 1890 instead of 1945, they might have elicited much more of a yawn than the ecclesiastical hammer blows a hierarchy (especially an American hierarchy) seeking an accommodation with protestantism at any cost delivered.

A priest of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest delivers a solid sermon on this vital matter below. He is quite correct in noting the foundational role rejection of EENS has played in the past 60 odd years of Church auto-demolition:

The sermon might be more review for many readers of this nutty blog, but if you’re anything like me, it’s good to hear reminders of stuff you “already” know from time to time. Otherwise, I tend to lose them.

AND, I think this is a topic that can’t get enough coverage. Even among traditional Catholic priest, Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus seems to be viewed as a bit of a minefield. Some Fraternity priests give real clear catechesis on this subject, but others wouldn’t touch it with a cane pole. So I think it merits coverage on that point, as well.

There are Masses all day tomorrow at Mater Dei Latin Mass parish in Irving, TX. So let not lack of convenient times be an issue to prevent anyone from earning indulgences for the poor holy souls in Purgatory!

I assume readers already know the requirements to earn a plenary indulgence for the souls in Purgatory. But if you need a reminder, go here.

Thank you all for your continuing prayers. I have missed a great deal in recent weeks but really wanted to encourage folks to take advantage of the wonderful spiritual work of mercy offered by the traditional priests of Mater Dei in making Mass, and the plenary indulgences, so convenient for all on this so very important day. Most all of us, if we are so blessed, will be in great need of such prayers one day, and our generosity now will certainly be repaid by the intercession of the Saints released from Purgatory through our prayers tomorrow!

If you know of other parishes, local or otherwise, with special Masses for tomorrow, you might be doing someone a great favor by posting that info in the comments. Thank you for your generosity.

I would like to thank my wife and reader skeinster for sharing this with me.

The mother of Fr. Joseph Portzer, FSSP, Teresa Mary Portzer (nee passed to her eternal reward recently. She was a sister of 11, 3 of whom were nuns, mother of 14, grandmother of 71, and great-grandmother of 39 (she outdid my father-in-law, who is “merely” grandfather of 66 and about 24 or 5 great grandchildren).

Even more than an eminently pious and apparently holy life well led, being the mother of a priest, she was also a participant in this most holy tradition, of which I was heretofore unaware:

“The cloth (manutergium) in which the hands of the priest is bound is traditionally kept by the priest and is given to the priest’s mother. And the tradition is, then, when the mother of the priest dies that linen cloth, in which her son’s hands were bound when he was ordained a priest, is placed in her coffin. So that when she stands before Almighty God on her judgment day, she will have that cloth in her hands, so that she may say to Jesus Christ, that “Whatever sins I may have committed in my frailty, and whatever evil I have done, I gave the Church a priest.” And that gift of her son to the priesthood will be to her eternal glory in heaven.

In addition, the father of the priest receives the stole from the first Confession, for similar reasons.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Charles Joseph Kriley and Catherine Josepha (Kuhn) Kriley; grandchildren, Andrew and Francisco Meluch and Christopher Michael Aronica; her sisters, Margaret, Cecilia Geibel and Sister Sylvester, CDP and by her brothers, Anthony, Charles, Francis and Wendelin.

The Requiem was held this morning. Father Portzer, formerly parochial vicar at Mater Dei FSSP parish in Irving, TX, offered the Mass at Queen of the Holy Rosary FSSP parish in Vienna, OH.

Please pray for the repose of the soul of Teresa Mary Portzer. Families like hers are the rocks upon which the human element of the Church is built.